Method, apparatus, and system for modeling interactions of a group of users with a computing system

ABSTRACT

A method, apparatus, and system for modeling interactions of a group of users with a computing system includes monitoring passive and active interaction data of multiple users and discovering common interests among the users based on the interaction data. Collective contextual user models may be dynamically formed based on the common interests. Such models have many useful applications that can benefit the group or the individual members of the group.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 61/648,503, filed May 17, 2012, which isincorporated herein by this reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

In a typical, traditional computing system environment, users interactwith multiple different software applications, e.g. email, Internetbrowsers, word processing, calendars, and so on. The semantic meaning ofeach interaction with each application may be implicitly known by theparticular application. For example, an email application may be awareof particular high-level functions (such as sending a message) performedby the user within that application. However, the computing systemgenerally does not maintain a collective, semantic model of all of themeaningful activities the user has performed or is performing, acrossmultiple different applications. In other words, the computing systemmay be aware that an email application and a calendar application areboth currently executing, and may be aware of system-level calls thatthose applications make, but the system does not know what the user isfunctionally doing within each of those applications, and thus is unableto communicate that information in a form that is understandable to theuser. Rather, that level of semantic awareness typically remainsconfined within the individual applications. This issue is compounded inthe context of a collaborative group of users: as a traditionalcomputing system is not aware at a high-level of what each of theindividual users is doing across various applications, it is all themore unaware of the significance of those actions for the group.

SUMMARY

According to at least one aspect of this disclosure, a common interestdiscovery module to discover common interests between or among usersinteracting with a computing system, including executable instructionsembodied in one or more machine-readable media, is configured to: accessa plurality of contextual user models, each of the contextual usermodels including user-specific interaction data, the user-specificinteraction data including gaze-tracking data including one or morereal-time sensor inputs indicative of user gaze in relation to on-screenlocations of a display of the computing device; and semanticdescriptions of user interface elements displayed at the on-screenlocations corresponding to the gaze-tracking data, the semanticdescriptions including information about the user interface elements;identify a collective interaction context that is common across theplurality of contextual user models; and form a collective contextualuser model based on the collective interaction context, the collectivecontextual user model including user-specific interaction data from theplurality of contextual user models, the user-specific interaction datarelating to the common interaction context.

The common interest discovery module may be configured to apply one ormore cognitive parameters to the user-specific interaction data andstore the user-specific interaction data in the collective contextualuser model according to the cognitive parameters. The collectiveinteraction context may relate to a common interest derived from theuser-specific interaction data. The collective interaction context mayrelate to content viewed by users associated with the contextual usermodels. The collective interaction context may relate to priorinteractions with the computing system by users associated with thecontextual user models. The collective interaction context relates tocurrent interactions with the computing system by users associated withthe contextual user models. The collective contextual user model mayinclude a short term memory, a long term memory, and pre-cognitivecontent. The common interest discovery module may be configured togenerate a notification relating to user-specific interaction data basedon the collective interaction context. The common interest discoverymodule may be configured to aggregate user-specific interaction datafrom the plurality of contextual user models and present an inferencebased on the aggregated user-specific interaction data. Theuser-specific interaction data may include data relating to userinteractions with a plurality of software applications.

The common interest discovery module may be configured to presentcontent associated with user-specific interaction data of a contextualuser model to one or more users associated with the collectivecontextual user model. The common interest discovery module may beconfigured to receive user feedback in response to the presentation ofcontent and update the collective contextual user model based on theuser feedback. The common interest discovery module may be configured toinitiate a software application event based on the collective contextualuser model. The common interest discovery module may be configured toreceive user feedback in response to the initiated software applicationevent and update the collective contextual user model based on the userfeedback.

The common interest discovery module may be configured to prepare ashared reading record indicating portions of content viewed by usersassociated with the collective contextual model. The common interestdiscovery module may be configured to indicate in the shared readingrecord durations of visual attention associated with the portions ofcontent viewed by the users associated with the collective contextualmodel, wherein the durations of visual attention are derived from thegaze-tracking data. The common interest discovery module may beconfigured to apply one or more cognitive parameters to the durations ofvisual attention to associate levels of cognitive processing with thedurations of visual attention. The common interest discovery module maybe configured to identify portions of content having higher or lowerlevels of cognitive processing.

According to at least one aspect of this disclosure, a method fordetermining a collective interaction context of users interacting with acomputing system, includes maintaining a plurality of contextual usermodels, each of the contextual user models including user-specificinteraction data, the user-specific interaction data including: passiveinteraction data including one or more real-time sensor inputsindicative of a passive user interaction in relation to on-screenlocations of a display of the computing device, the passive interactiondata relating to a user interaction that does not initiate anapplication event; and semantic descriptions of user interface elementsdisplayed at the on-screen locations corresponding to the passiveinteraction data, the semantic descriptions including information aboutthe user interface elements; identifying a plurality of common interestsacross the plurality of contextual user models based on theuser-specific interaction data; and dynamically associating theplurality of contextual user models with one another based on the commoninterests.

The method may include forming a plurality of collective contextual usermodels based on the associations of contextual user models, wherein eachcollective contextual user model comprises user-specific interactiondata relating to the common interest. The method may include changingthe plurality of collective contextual user models as the commoninterests change. The user-specific interaction data may include activeinteraction data relating to a user interaction that results in anapplication event. The method of claim 19, wherein the real-time sensorinputs may include one or more of gaze-tracking inputs, proximityinputs, force inputs and pressure inputs.

According to at least one aspect of this disclosure, a computing systemmay include a display; a sensor subsystem to obtain the passiveinteraction data; one or more processors; and one or moremachine-readable media having stored therein a plurality of instructionsthat when executed by the processor cause the computing system toperform any of the foregoing methods.

According to at least one aspect of this disclosure, a common interestdiscovery module to discover common interests between or among usersinteracting with a computing system, including executable instructionsembodied in one or more machine-readable media, configured to: access aplurality of contextual user models, each of the contextual user modelsincluding user-specific interaction data, the user-specific interactiondata including: passive interaction data including one or more real-timesensor inputs indicative of a passive user interaction in relation toon-screen locations of a display of the computing device, the passiveinteraction data relating to a user interaction that does not initiatean application event; active interaction data, the active interactiondata relating to a user interaction that results in an applicationevent; and semantic descriptions of user interface elements displayed atthe on-screen locations corresponding to the passive interaction dataand the active interaction data, the semantic descriptions includinginformation about the user interface elements; identify a collectiveinteraction context that is common across the plurality of contextualuser models; and form a collective contextual user model based on thecollective interaction context, the collective contextual user modelincluding user-specific interaction data from the plurality ofcontextual user models, the user-specific interaction data relating tothe common interaction context.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

This disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not by way oflimitation in the accompanying figures. The figures may, alone or incombination, illustrate one or more embodiments of the disclosure. Forsimplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in thefigures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensionsof some elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements forclarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference labels may berepeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogouselements.

FIG. 1 is a simplified module diagram of at least one embodiment of across-application system for modeling passive and active userinteractions with a computing system;

FIG. 2 is a simplified module diagram illustrating additional details ofat least one embodiment of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a simplified module diagram of at least one embodiment of acontextual user model that may be used in connection with the system ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a simplified flow diagram for at least one embodiment of amethod for developing a contextual, semantic model of passive and activeuser interactions with a computer system;

FIG. 5 is a simplified flow diagram for at least one embodiment of amethod for adaptively presenting user interface elements based on acontextual model;

FIG. 6 is a simplified elevational view of an exemplary user interfacethat may be displayed in connection with the method of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a simplified flow diagram for at least one embodiment of amethod for discovering information in an automated fashion based on acontextual user model;

FIG. 8 is a simplified flow diagram for at least one embodiment of amethod for conducting a search based on a contextual user model;

FIG. 9 is a simplified elevational view of an exemplary user interfacethat may be displayed in connection with the method of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a simplified module diagram of at least one embodiment of across-application system for modeling passive and active interactions ofmultiple users in a computing system;

FIG. 11 is a simplified flow diagram for at least one embodiment of amethod for developing a collective contextual user model that may beused in connection with the system of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a simplified elevational view of an exemplary user interfacethat may be displayed in connection with the system of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 13 is a simplified block diagram of an exemplary computing systemin connection with which at least one embodiment of the system of FIG. 1and/or FIG. 9 may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

While the concepts of the present disclosure are susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detailbelow. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent tolimit the concepts of the present disclosure to the particular formsdisclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents, and alternatives consistent with the presentdisclosure and the appended claims.

Computer-based methods and apparatus are disclosed for maintaining asemantically meaningful model of a user's interactions with multipleapplications of a computing system. In some embodiments, interactiveapplications of the computing system comprise, or are enhanced with, ahigh-level description of each action that a user can potentiallyrequest or initiate. As and when an action is processed by anapplication, the corresponding description of that action is publishedor posted to a stored model. Interactive applications may furthercomprise, or be enhanced with, a high-level description of the contentthat is displayed by the application in various contexts. The currentlocation of a user's gaze with respect to the screen or display of thecomputing may be tracked by a sensor subsystem. The application that isresponsible for the displayed content being viewed by a user at a givenmoment (as per the user's tracked gaze) may report or post thecorresponding description of that content to the stored model. Thestored model may include short-term and long-term repositories, as wellas parameters representing a rough model of the user's relevantcognitive and locomotive capabilities (e.g. duration of memories;minimum times required to process displayed content or to readjust gaze,etc.).

In this way, a semantically meaningful, contextual, model of what a useris seeing (or has seen) and is doing (or has done) is maintained withrespect to the user's activities across multiple different softwareapplications. In various embodiments, this model is leveraged by thesystem to facilitate intelligent, automated analysis of how best toassist the user in a variety of ways, such as input acceleration,adaptive presentation, discovery, and cognitive contextual or“workflow”-based searching. In further embodiments, contextual modelsare maintained for a group of collaborating users, and those models canbe collectively and intelligently analyzed by, e.g., an executive-levelmanagement module, in order to provide insights regarding group-levelbehavior or otherwise leverage the interactions of the individual usersfor the benefit of the group.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a cross-application user interaction modelingsystem 20 is embodied in a computing system 10 as a number ofcomputer-executable modules, each of which may be implemented assoftware, firmware, hardware or a combination thereof. The illustrativesystem 20 includes a framework 110, which interfaces with a number ofuser-level software applications 100(1) to 100(N) (where N is a positiveinteger), to, while a user is working in one or more of the applications100, obtain high-level semantic descriptions of the user's interactionswith the various applications. As such, each of the user applications100 includes a conventional (now existing or later-developed) executablesoftware application 101 (e.g., email, calendar, word processor, etc.)that is extended by or coupled with a semantic description 102.

As explained further below, semantic description 102 describes both“passive” and “active” user interactions with an application 101 in amanner that is meaningful and useful at a user level (as opposed to alower level that is more useful to the computer). As used herein,“passive” refers generally to user interactions with computing deviceswhere the interactions do not directly result in an application event,while “active” refers generally to user interactions with computingdevices that do result in the occurrence of an application event. Someexamples of active interactions include certain gestures (e.g., “swipe,”“tap,” “drag”), and other methods of physically contacting a keyboard,keypad, mouse, touchscreen, hardpanel control or other input mechanismof the computing device (e.g. to activate a user interface control,enter or select data, or select a displayed option).

Some examples of passive user interactions include user movements oractivity that may be detected by one or more sensors or other peripheralcomponents of or in communication with the computing device, such asoptical sensors, proximity sensors, force sensors, cameras, and/orothers, which may be integrated with the computing device or otherwiselocated in the user's environment (e.g., cameras or other sensorslocated in a room of a building). For instance, optical sensors orcameras may detect that a person's eyes are focused on a particular areaof the display screen even though the person is not actively interactingwith the computing device. Similarly, proximity sensors may detectmovement of a portion of the user's body (e.g., fingers, hands, arms)toward or away from a particular portion of a touch-sensitive displayscreen, mouse, or keyboard, without the person actively touching suchcomponent, or with the person actively touching the screen or othercomponent, but with the system noticing the degree of force applied tothe component (which may be an indicator of the person's stress level,for example) or other conditions, based on the force or pressuredetected by the sensor. In other words, “passive” may refer to the factthat the user is not actively aware of his or her activity (e.g., thechanges in force or pressure he or she is applying to the component ofthe computing device), but the system 20 may sense it. As anotherexample, cameras or other sensing devices may detect the user'smovements or gestures (e.g., hand waving, pointing, raising or loweringan arm), and the system 20 may incorporate semantic information relatingto such movements or gestures into the user's current interactioncontext. Whereas such changes in force, pressure, or movement do notresult in a conventional software application behaving any differently(e.g., in response to a change in a person's stress or activity level),the system 20 can, through, e.g., the input acceleration module 250 orthe adaptive presentation module 260, cause an application to responddifferently or more appropriately based on these inputs.

The semantic description 102 is created using common terms of reference(e.g., an ontology) for the various features, functions, and datainvolved in user interactions with each of the applications 101, and mayspecify, for example, mandatory data fields and relationships among thefields. When a user interaction occurs, the low-level (e.g., machine oroperating system level) representation of the interaction is annotatedwith the corresponding common terms of reference. For example, anontology for an email application may associate the system-levelrepresentation of data in the addressee field of an email message withthe label “first name, last name.” In cross-application environments,multi-user environments, or other situations in which multiple differentontologies may be employed (e.g., by the various applications or bydifferent users), the semantic description may resolve the differencesbetween the ontologies by mapping the corresponding terms of referenceacross the ontologies. For instance, data identified as “last name” inone application or ontology might map to data labeled as “family name”in another application or ontology.

The framework 110 also receives inputs from a number of user sensors103, including, for example, sensors that can track the user's gaze inrelation to a display screen of the computing system 10. As described inmore detail below, the framework 110 maps the sensor inputs to thecorresponding application's user interaction information, including thesemantic descriptions, and posts the semantically-enhanced interactioninformation to a contextual user model 180 in real time (where “post” isused herein to refer to any suitable type of data transmissiontechnique, e.g., ‘push’ or ‘pull’ techniques).

Various features of the system 20 are implemented as computer-executablemodules that access and use the contextual user model 180 via aninterface 190 (which may include, for example, one or more applicationprogramming interfaces or APIs, query interfaces, and/or other similarmechanisms, which may be accessed programmatically or by a user), and/ora user activity inference engine 185. Illustratively, these modulesinclude an input acceleration module 250, an adaptive presentationmodule 260, a content discovery module 270, a user activity inferenceengine 185, a cognitive contextual or “workflow”-based search module280, a common interest discovery module 602, and one or more collectivecontextual user models 600, each of which is described in greater detailbelow.

The illustrative inference engine 185 is embodied as acomputer-executable module or subsystem that applies, e.g., artificialintelligence methods, algorithms, and/or techniques (using, e.g.probabilistic and/or statistical models) to make intelligent inferencesabout the user's current activity with respect to the computing system10 (i.e., user interactions with a computer of the computing system 10)based on the interaction data stored in the contextual user model 180.The inference engine 185 makes these inferences available to the contentdiscovery module 270 as described below, and the other modules 250, 260,280, and 602 may utilize such inferences as well. The inference engine185 may draw inferences from the contextual user model 180 and/or one ormore of the collective contextual user models 600, in some embodiments,and may store the inferences in one or more of the user models 180, 600.

FIG. 2 depicts additional details of the system 20, in which arepresentative interactive application 100 comprises presentationcomponents 120 that are responsible for interactive display content, andlogic components 150 that are responsible for processing events andconditions and performing the appropriate tasks of the application. Forexample, in an exemplary email application implemented in accordancewith the design of application 100, presentation components 120 includeon-screen rendering component 125, which is responsible for displayingan appropriate array of content and choices (e.g. in the context ofviewing an email, display elements might include the current messageheader and text, and interactively selectable choices such as reply,forward, save to folder, delete, etc.). Logic components 150 includebusiness logic and event processing component 155, which is responsiblefor carrying out relevant tasks—such as transmitting a message, orsaving or deleting a received message—in response to user-selectedchoices.

Presentation components 120 and logic components 150 also include,respectively, semantic description components 130 and 160, in order tosupport the creation and maintenance of the cross-application, semantic,contextual user model 180, as will be described below. Semanticvisualization model 130 describes at a useful high level the userinterface elements (e.g., dialogs, controls, text, graphics, etc.) thatare located on the display screen of the computing system 10 at thelocation corresponding to the user's passive interaction as sensed byuser sensor(s) 103 (e.g., the on-screen location of the user's gaze, orthe on-screen location corresponding to the user's gesture, movement,hand position, etc.). For example, if a gaze tracking system 104 detectsthat the user has been looking at a particular paragraph of a documentexplaining ‘cloud computing’ for a prolonged period of time, semanticvisualization model 130 may make available to the framework 110 thefollowing information: “user=user ID, action=reading document,content=cloud computing, status=read and absorbed,” in addition to thedate, time, and/or (perhaps, if location information is available to thesystem 20), the geographic location at which the interaction occurred.

Semantic interaction model 160 describes the application events that areinitiated by various “active” user interactions (e.g., touch, typing,voice, gesture), the business logic that is executed as a result of theapplication event, and the results of the execution of the businesslogic. For example, when a user presses the “send” button after creatinga new email message, semantic interaction model 160 may make availableto the framework 110 the following information: “sender=user ID,action=send email, recipient=John Smith, status=send complete,” inaddition to the date, time, email content, and/or geographic location atwhich the interaction occurred.

The following example illustrates how application 100 can providereal-time posts to contextual user model 180 of passive interactions(e.g., “what the user sees”) within the ambit of application 100. In theexemplary computing system 10, gaze sensor(s) 104 detect and track thegaze of a user of the system, such as by means of one or moregaze-tracking mechanisms that are conventionally available, or by meansof the multi-camera sensor system for user gaze tracking described inpending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/158,109 (AdaptableInput/Output Device) and Ser. No. 13/399,210 (Adaptable Actuated InputDevice with Integrated Proximity Detection). The current on-screenlocation of a user's gaze is fed to framework 110, which may beimplemented as a system or middleware component of the system 20.Framework 110 queries application 100 to determine what content isdisplayed at the location of the current gaze—in other words, what doesthe user see? Framework 110 may itself determine that the current gazelocation falls within the screen area currently occupied by the displayof application 100; alternatively, framework 100 might submit queries toall or several current applications, which might themselves determinewhether the gaze location falls within their on-screen area. In anycase, query handler 135 processes that query by obtaining from semanticvisualization model 130 a semantically meaningful description of what iscurrently displayed by application 100 at the identified location. Invarious embodiments, the semantic description provided by semanticvisualization model 130 may include a high-level, functional descriptionof the specified portion of the display (e.g., an indication that thesubject line or addressee list of message #XXX is displayed at thespecified location) as well as actual content of the display (e.g. thetext that is displayed at that location). This semantic-levelinformation is returned to framework 110, which in turn posts theinformation 140 to contextual user model 180 for incorporation in themodel.

Inputs from other sensors that capture more or less “passive” userinteractions with the computing system 10, such as proximity sensors 105(which can detect user movements relative to a computer display,keyboard, or other component of the system 10) or force or pressuresensors 107 (which can detect variations in the amount of force appliedby the user when typing on, e.g., a keyboard or keypad), may be handledin a similar fashion.

Logic components 150 provide real-time posts to contextual user model180 of “what the user does” within the ambit of application 100. Asoutlined in FIG. 1, business logic and event processing component 155interfaces with semantic description component 160. When an event occursand is processed—e.g., a message is deleted in response to the user'srequest—event handler 165 obtains a functional, high-level descriptionof that event from semantic interaction model 160, and posts thatdescriptive information 170 of what the user did to contextual usermodel 180. By “high level” description of user interactions we meandescribing an interaction at a level that is meaningful from a userperspective, generally at a higher abstraction layer than raw systemoperations. For example, reading and replying to email, searching theweb and modifying calendars are common user interactions.

In some embodiments, the methods described are also applied to web-basedinteractive material. Such material may be enhanced or processed so thatits display and execution by a browser on the user's device will post tocontextual user model 180 high-level descriptions of what the user seesand does, as above. In some cases, the HTML and/or other markup thatdefines the display and behavior of a web page or application issuggestive of the high-level structure and meaning of display elementsand interactive links, such that semantic descriptions analogous todescriptions 130 and 160 can be readily extracted. In a furtherembodiment, web pages written in a standard mark-up language (e.g. HTML)are augmented at their source with additional descriptive mark-up in asemantic mark-up language (such as RDF or OWL, for example). A browserapplication 100 of the exemplary embodiment treats each piece ofsemantic mark-up as semantic descriptions for the corresponding piece ofHTML that is rendered by the browser and is viewed (“what the usersees”) or interacted with (e.g. clicked—“what the user does”) by theuser. In some embodiments, the additional semantic mark-up is encoded orformatted so as to be ignored by browsers in conventional systems notequipped with requisite elements of the present invention. In a stillfurther embodiment, instances of semantic descriptions 130 and 160 canbe prepared on-the-fly by “screen scraping” online materials that areaccessed: essentially, display frames rendered by the browser areprocessed OCR-style (e.g. by the browser, or by framework 110) in orderto automatically recognize words and numbers, as well as potentiallyother objects with conventional semantic meaning, e.g. labeled orunlabelled boxes, arrows, or buttons that may connote controls—e.g.“OK”, “Cancel”, “Quit”, “Close”, > (play button), >>, etc.—and/or otherobjects with semantic significance for the user such as faces. Forcommon web-based applications with relatively familiar interfacefeatures and controls—such as hosted online email andcalendars—templates or rules can be provided to drive recognition ofcertain canonical words or shapes with conventional high-level meanings(e.g. “send”, “reply”; disk icon for “save”; standard grid of acalendar, etc.). In this way, even displays generated by browserexecution of web-based Flash or JavaScript code can be handled as ifsemantically marked, albeit more speculatively and less completely.

In the illustrative embodiment, the information 140, 170 is stored atleast initially in a user-specific persistent memory 172. That is,information about all of the user's passive and active interactions withthe computing system 10 (or with one or more specific computing devicesthereof) is maintained in the memory 172. A contextual mapping function174 executes logic to determine whether a particular interaction is onethat may be an indicator of the user's current interaction context, andif so, updates the contextual user model 180 to include the interactionof interest. For example, interactions such as scrolling or resizing awindow on the display screen would not typically reveal much about what,substantively, the user is doing with the computing device and thereforewould not be added to the contextual user model 180, while interactionssuch as reading a document or sending an email message would be ofinterest in understanding the user's current interaction context andthus would be stored in the contextual user model 180. As used herein,the term “current interaction context” refers to the user's situationand/or circumstances as they relate to the user's interactions with acomputing system, at a particular moment in time: what documents theymay be reading or working in, what other users they may be communicatingwith (via, e.g., email or messaging systems), the degree to which theuser is actively using the computing device, the user's mode ofinteraction with the device (e.g., whether the user prefers mouse,keypad, or voice), etc.

The contextual mapping function 174 also applies cognitive and/orlocomotive parameters to the various interaction data, as describedfurther below. Using those parameters, the interaction data isclassified as information that would typically be retained in the user'sshort term memory or long term memory, as the case may be. Informationthat has not yet been cognitively processed by the user may beclassified by the contextual mapping function 174 as pre-cognitivecontent. As the user-specific persistent memory 172 keeps track of allof the user's interactions (not just those that would typically beretained in short term or long term memory, or those that are consideredpre-cognitive), the persistent memory 172 can allow the system 20 tohelp the user recall information that the user has forgotten.Accordingly, in some embodiments, portions of the persistent memory 172may be at least temporarily copied, moved, or associated with (e.g., viapointers or meta data) to the contextual user model 180 and processed bythe contextual mapping function 174. In the illustrative embodiment, theinteraction data stored in the persistent memory 172 is semanticallyenhanced as described herein prior to storage in the persistent memory172. In other embodiments, the persistent memory 172 may keep track ofthe more or less low-level or machine accessible interaction datawithout semantic enhancement, alternatively or in addition to thesemantically-enhanced interaction data.

FIG. 3 illustrates contextual user model 180 in greater detail. In anexemplary embodiment, contextual user model 180 includes pre-cognitivecontent 205, a short-term memory (STM) 210, a long-term memory (LTM)220, and a persistent memory 225, which may be a portion or subset ofthe persistent memory 172. In other embodiments, one or more of thesesub-areas may be omitted from the contextual user model 180. Forexample, some embodiments of the contextual user model 180 may includeonly the STM 210, or only the STM 210 and LTM 220.

The passive interaction data 140 and active interaction data 170 arestored in STM 210, but are over time are aged and removed. Entriesremoved from STM 210 may be selectively transferred to LTM 220 forlonger term storage. For example, it is thought that much of thematerial that ends up in a human being's long term memory consists ofthings to which that individual is repeatedly exposed, on a consistentbasis, thereby reinforcing the memory. Similarly, in some embodiments,entries from STM 210 representing content which the user has repeatedlyaccessed or interacted with are transferred to LTM 220, in an attempt tomodel (albeit only roughly) the set of content that the human user wouldtend to retain in their own long term memory. The intention is that atany given time, STM 210 should more or less reflect what actually is inthe user's short-term memory and awareness: namely, what has the userrecently seen or done in the user's interactions with the system.Analogously, LTM 220 is intended to reflect what is in the user'slonger-term memory, and is less likely to be within the user's currentconsciousness absent a reminder. The LTM 220 differs from the persistentmemory 225 in that the persistent memory 225 retains information thatthe user has completely forgotten, i.e., that the user cannot recalleven with a reminder. In some embodiments, persistent memory 225,pre-cognitive content 205, STM 210, and LTM 220 are each searchablyindexed by the system, in order to facilitate various forms ofintelligent assistance and information retrieval, as described below inconnection with modules 250 (input accelerator), 260 (adaptivepresentation), 270 (discovery), 280 (cognitive-contextual or“workflow-based” search), and 602 (common interest discovery).

Contextual user model 180 further includes cognitive processing model230, which may include parameters for characterizing the duration ofparticular entries in STM 210 and LTM 220. For example, such parametersmay be based on cognitive science findings regarding the typical lengthsof time over which content can be presumed to have faded from a humanuser's short-term memory and/or attention, and that should therefore beremoved from STM 210 and potentially transferred to LTM 220. In someembodiments, the parameters of model 230 may be functions of variablessuch as the time of day (e.g., reflecting diminished retention later inthe day) or the user's location and context (e.g. at home, at work desk,in meeting, on telephone call, etc.). In still further embodiments, theparameters of model 230 may be personalized to individual users, e.g.through the system's experience with a particular user, and/or based ondemographic factors such as age or disability. In additionalembodiments, information may be gradually faded from STM 210 before itis transferred, by being associated with a score (e.g. percentage)indicating a probability of whether that particular information is stillwithin the user's short-term recall.

In addition, cognitive processing model 230 may include parameters forfurther qualifying the entries of STM 210 and LTM 220. For example,model 230 may include parameters for determining whether particularcontent that was “seen” by the user, per posting 140, was actuallyabsorbed (cognitively processed) by the user, such as parametersspecifying a minimally sufficient amount of time for the user's gaze tobe fixed on a given piece of content in order for that content to beread and/or understood. For example, the model may include a parameterspecifying how long it takes for a user to read a line of text. Someexamples of cognitive parameters are shown in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1 Attribute: Compare two items Time Taken Colors 38 ms Letters 40ms Digits 33 ms Words 47 ms Shapes 50 ms

If postings 140 indicate, for example, that the user's gaze has beenbriefly fixed on a particular email message, or on a displayed notice oralert, the system can use the above-described parameters to assesswhether or not the user is likely to have actually read and processedthe contents of the email or the notice. Here again, in some embodimentssuch parameters are functions of variables such as time of day,location, context, and/or user demographics. Similarly, if there iscompetition for the user's attention—for example, if the system observesthat the user is currently engaged on a phone call or other liveconversation—then some embodiments may reflect presumptively diminishedattention in cognitive model 230 and/or STM 210 with respect toon-screen content that is within the user's field of view according topostings 140 during periods of such “multi-tasking” by the user.Conversely, highly repetitive and/or sustained viewing of e.g. aparticular portion of a document or other displayed item of informationtends to indicate a relatively strong user awareness of, and attentionto, that specific piece of information. Moreover, in embodiments wheregaze-tracking sensor(s) 105 detect pupil dilation and/or other indiciaof attentive focus (e.g., gaze frequency or gaze hot spotting), suchmetrics can also be reflected in the parameters of model 230, and theassessment of whether a user has mentally processed viewed content cantake into account this physical assessment of the user's currentlevel-of-attention. In any case, contextual user model 180, andparticularly cognitive model 230 and STM 210, can incorporate a varietyof these factors and more realistically reflect whether a user haslikely absorbed a given piece of information—not just whether the user'seyeballs were temporarily aimed at it. Accordingly, in some embodimentsthe system may filter postings 140 on this basis and not incorporate anew posting 140 in STM 210 if it is determined based on model 230 thatthe content “seen” by the user has probably not (yet) been actuallyprocessed; in other embodiments, such content might be incorporated inSTM 210 but flagged as not yet (fully) cognitively processed, or aslikely to be retained for a shorter (or longer) duration than average.

Contextual user model 180 further includes locomotive processing model240, which may include parameters for determining where the user's handsare currently located in reference to a display screen or keyboard, forexample, and projecting the likely execution time for the user's handsto move to another location. If postings 140 indicate, for example, thatthe user's hands have been fixed in a particular location for a periodof time, the system 20 can use the locomotive processing parameters torelocate user interface elements nearer to the user's hand position. Onthe other hand, if postings 140 indicate that the user's hands have beenvery active, the system 20 may decide to leave user interface elementsin a central location rather than trying to follow the user's hands. Asabove, in some embodiments the locomotive parameters may be functions ofvariables such as time of day, location, context, and/or userdemographics. Some examples of locomotive parameters are shown in Table2 below.

TABLE 2 Location: Move hands to Time Taken Mouse 360 ms Arrow Keys 210ms Function Keys 320 ms

As noted above, the illustrative contextual user model 180 also includespre-cognitive content 205. By “pre-cognitive,” we mean interactions ormaterial that the system 20 is aware of, which might to be of interestto the user or the user's current context (based on the user'scontextual model 180 and/or the user's involvement in one or morecollective contextual user models 600, described below), but of whichthe user is not yet cognitively aware at a substantive level. Suchcontent may include material determined by the gaze-tracking system yetto be cognitively absorbed by the user (e.g., content that the userglanced at briefly before being interrupted by a phone call or meetingnotice). Such content may also include, for example, next actions orseries or sequences of actions predicted by the input accelerationmodule 250, and/or content predicted to be of interest to the user asdetermined by the content discovery module 270, described below. Asanother example, such content may include a new email message receivedby the mail client (e.g., client portion of email software), which hasalready been processed by the system 20 to obtain the sender, subject,and/or other useful information as described above, where suchprocessing occurs before the user is even made aware of the new emailmessage by the mail client. In this way, the system 20 can use thepre-cognitive information (information about the arrived message thatthe user has not yet seen) and other information in the current usercontextual model 180 (e.g., whether the user is working intently on adocument in a software application or browsing the Internet) todetermine whether to make the user aware of the email message at thatmoment in time, given the user's current interaction context.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an illustrative method 400 executable ascomputerized programs, routines, logic and/or instructions by one ormore of the various modules and/or components of the system 20, todevelop and maintain a contextual user model 180, is shown. The method400 handles various types of user interactions with the computing system10. As such, the method 400 receives user interaction input (e.g., akeystroke, mouse click, gesture, gaze data, proximity data, or forcedata) at block 410, determines whether the input is active or passive(i.e., whether it implicates an application event) at block 412, andhandles the input accordingly in the subsequent blocks. In the case ofactive user input (which may involve the user typing on a keyboard orkeypad, touching an interactive control on the display screen, issuing avoice command or request, or performing a gesture, for example), themethod 400 interfaces with the application 100 with which the input isassociated to determine the application event corresponding to the input(block 426), and obtains the semantic description of the applicationevent from the semantic interaction model 160 (block 428) as describedabove.

In the case of a passive interaction, the method 400 processes theinteraction data based on the type of passive interaction, as needed.For gaze input, the method 400 obtains the related gaze-tracking data,which may include the date and time of the gaze, the duration of thegaze, and/or other data indicating the user's degree of attentive focus(e.g., pupil dilation, blinking intervals, etc.), at block 416. At block418, the method 400 determines the on-screen locations (e.g., the x andy coordinates) that correspond to the user's gaze. At block 420, themethod 400 accesses the semantic visualization model 130 to obtaininformation about the semantic meaning of the user interface elementcurrently displayed at the on-screen location of the user's gaze.Generally speaking, as used herein, the term “user interface element”may refer to interactive controls, content (e.g., graphics, text, orvideo), previous user inputs (e.g., text entered into a fill-in form),or any other type of object that may be presented on a display of acomputing device.

For proximity inputs, the method 400 may determine the on-screenlocations or keyboard locations (e.g., x and y coordinates) thatcorrespond most closely to the position of the user's hands (or otherbody portion) as determined from the proximity input (block 422), andthen obtain the semantic meaning of the user interface element displayedat that location or in the vicinity of that location from the semanticvisualization model 130 (block 424). Information about user interfaceelements displayed in the vicinity of, but not at, the on-screenlocation can be useful to, among other features, the adaptivepresentation module 260 as described below. Other indicators of passiveuser interactions, such as typing intensity (the amount of force theuser applies to keys of a keyboard or a keypad and variations thereofover time) may be obtained from sensors at block 430, alternatively orin addition. At block 432, semantic meanings may be associated with suchsensor data. In some cases, the semantic meanings obtained at block 432may be those associated with user interface elements displayed aton-screen locations that are mapped to the sensor inputs, and as such,may be obtained from the semantic visualization model 130.

Once the user interaction data has been received and linked up with thedesired semantic information, it is stored in the persistent memory 172(block 434). At block 436, a periodic or ongoing process (e.g.,contextual mapping function 174) evaluates the interaction data storedin the persistent memory 174 and determines whether the interaction datamay be useful in understanding the user's current context and thusshould be posted to the contextual user model 180. For instance, genericand/or user-specific rules regarding the relative significance ofvarious user interactions may be stored in the contextual user model 180and applied by the contextual mapping function 174, at block 436. Atblock 438, the method 400 applies the cognitive and/or locomotiveparameters described above (e.g., those stored in the cognitiveprocessing model 230 and/or the locomotive interaction model 240) todetermine whether to classify the interaction data as being associatedwith pre-cognitive content 205, short term memory 210, or long termmemory 220, and stores the interaction data in the appropriate sub-areaof the contextual user model 180 (or associates the interaction datawith the appropriate metadata or other indicators of the correspondinginteraction type) at block 440.

Thus, contextual user model 180 maintains an up-to-date,cross-application semantic model of what each user sees/absorbs and doesin their interactions with multiple applications on the system. Thiscross-application semantic model can facilitate intelligent, automatedanalysis by the system of how best to assist the user in a variety ofways. Four types of examples are now described for illustrativepurposes, although practitioners will appreciate that many other typesof intelligent assistance are also possible by leveraging contextualuser model 180.

Input Acceleration

In some embodiments, the system 100 includes an “input accelerator”module 250. Based on the contents of the contextual user model 180 andparticularly the STM 210, the input accelerator 250 infers what the useris currently attempting to accomplish, and presents suggested next stepsor actions as selectable options that might be helpful to the user incompleting that task. Further details of the input accelerator 250 aredescribed in Senanayake et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/534,155, filed Jun. 27, 2012, which is incorporated herein by thisreference in its entirety.

Adaptive Presentation of User Interface Elements

Similarly, based on user model 180 and particularly STM 210, the systemcan infer where the user's attention is currently focused, and can takeinto account the assessment of current user attention, as well asknowledge of what the user has recently seen and absorbed, so as topresent interactive controls in a manner and arrangement that is optimalfor the user's context, as well as for purposes of prioritizing andpresenting informational notices, alerts, or information that is ofinterest to the user, and the like. This functionality is represented inFIG. 1 by adaptive presentation module 260.

For example, alerts and other notifications may be positioned within theuser's current visual focus. If contextual user model 180 indicates theuser's attention is deeply focused (e.g. extended visual focus on anarrow set of materials), the logic of module 260 may call for audible,or otherwise highlighted, presentation of urgent and important alerts,while suppressing or delaying less urgent notifications so as to avoidneedlessly distracting the user. In a further example, module 260 mayinfer from sensor data and/or additional current context information(e.g. data from an accelerometer or motion sensor integrated in theuser's interactive device, and/or calendar information) that the user iscurrently in transit, and may therefore dictate audible presentation ofinformation, rather than or in addition to visual presentation.

Similarly, interactive on-screen controls associated with the user'scurrent or anticipated task—for example, the display of selectable “nextactions” (or sequences of actions or “workflows”) generated undercontrol of input accelerator 250 described above—may be positioned in alocation and manner convenient for the user. In some embodiments,particularly those with touch-sensitive and/or gesture-sensitive input,the position of a user's hands/extremities is also tracked, e.g. byproximity sensors included in user sensor(s) 150. Module 260 may thendictate that interactive controls be positioned proximately to theuser's hands for easy reach. If the user's visual focus and hands are indifferent locations, then module 260 may dictate displaying within theuser's visual field a depiction of the user's hands and the relativepositioning of interactive controls (see the “heads-up” interactionmethodology described in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/399,210, Adaptable Actuated Input Device with Integrated ProximityDetection). In determining the optimal presentation (e.g. positioning,arrangement) of interactive controls for a given context, locomotiveinteraction model 240 may be usefully referenced by adaptivepresentation module 260, to obtain parameters or rules reflecting thetime required for a user to perform various interactive hand movements,visual adjustments, and the like (see FIG. 3 for examples of suchparameters). For example, if contextual user model 180 captures that auser has begun moving a cursor (e.g. via mouse) towards a selectable setof choices, then—depending on the parameters of locomotive model 240 andthe relevant distances—adaptive presentation module 260 may dynamicallyrelocate the selections so that the user can make a selection withoutcompleting the mouse traversal.

Referring now to FIG. 5, an illustrative method 500 executable ascomputerized programs, routines, logic and/or instructions by one ormore of the various modules and/or components of the system 20, to adaptthe presentation of user interface elements based on the contextual usermodel 180, is shown. At block 510, the method detects the instantiationof a user interface element (or a combination or sequence of userinterface elements) by an application 100. Meanwhile, a gaze-trackingsystem may be continuously monitoring changes in the user's gaze as itrelates to various on-screen locations, at block 512. This process maydetermine the degree to which the user's attention is focused onparticular areas of the display at given points in time (block 514) andidentify content displayed in areas of the display that have receivedthe user's attention (block 516). So, when a user interface element (orcombination or sequence of such elements) is instantiated at block 510,the method 500 can assess the degree to which the user interfaceelement(s) may be relevant to the user's current interaction context.Based on this assessment, the method 500 may invoke the inputacceleration module 250 to predict a next action (or sequence of actionsor “workflow”) (block 518). For example, the method 500 may go ahead andactivate the instantiated user interface element(s) (at block 520) if itdetermines that the user is highly likely to do so given his or hercurrent context.

Alternatively or in addition, the method 500 may adjust the userinterface element(s) in one or more ways other than activating it. Forexample, the method 500 may change the on-screen location or arrangementof the user interface element(s) (block 522), e.g., by moving one ormore of the user interface elements to a new location or rearranging agroup of user interface elements including the instantiated element. Asan example, the method 500 may automatically rearrange user interfaceelements so that a window that the user has been looking at for a periodof time is displayed at a convenient location or with a larger fontsize. The method 500 may change a visual characteristic of the userinterface element (block 524). For instance, the size or color of aninteractive control may change in response to a determination by thesystem 20 that the user's hand seems to be moving toward that element(as determined via proximity sensors 105). The method 500 may change anaudio characteristic of the user interface element(s) (block 526). Forexample, if the system 20 determines that the user is concentratingdeeply on preparing work product in a word processing program, themethod 500 may silence an otherwise audible notification. The method 500may change the interaction mode of the user interface element(s) (block528). That is, the method 500 may present the user interface element(s)in a different way depending on the user's context (e.g., an audiblealert in place of a visual notification or vice versa). The method 500may change the topology of a physical user control (block 530) inembodiments where such physical controls are dynamically adjustable (seeU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/399,210, Adaptable Actuated InputDevice with Integrated Proximity Detection). In these and other ways,the system 20 strives to facilitate the user's productivity and enhancethe user's overall interaction experience with the computing system 10.

In some embodiments, the method 500 uses automated reasoning techniquesto determine whether to go ahead and present the adjusted user interfaceelement, at block 532, before actually presenting it. For instance, ifsystem 20 is uncertain about the user's current context (or has a lowerdegree of confidence in its analysis of the user's current interactioncontext), the method 500 may discard the adjusted user interface elementor defer it to a later, more appropriate time. The method 500 receivesor observes the user's active and passive responses to the variousadjusted user interface elements (block 536). For example, the method500 may record in the contextual user model 180 and/or one or morecollective contextual user models 600 whether the user actually clickedon or simply ignored an adjusted user interface element. The method 500may then return to block 510 and await the instantiation of another userinterface element.

Referring now to FIG. 6, an exemplary user interface display 610 isshown. The illustrative display 610 is at least a portion of a displayscreen of a computing device and includes a graphical user interface. Atthe outset, the user's visual attention is directed at area 614. Forexample, the user may be reading and/or preparing a document 612, e.g.,“Project Design.doc.” Next, an email notification 616 is received and isinitially displayed in an area of the display 610 that is outside of theuser's current visual focus. The user's gaze shifts to area 618 inresponse to the notification 616. Based on the duration of the user'sattention to the notification 616 and/or other factors (e.g., therelevance of the notification the user's current interaction context, asmay be determined from the contextual user model 180), the adaptivepresentation module 260 relocates the notification 616 to the area 614and changes the interaction mode of the notification 616 to aninteractive control 620, which reveals the sender of the message, thesubject, and an selectable button to allow the user to immediately replyto the message, if desired. In some embodiments, the adaptivepresentation module 260 may adjust the presentation of the notification616 based on its perceived relevance to the user's current interactioncontext and without regard to the gaze-tracking data. For instance, theadaptive presentation module 260 may be aware that the subject of thenotification 616 relates to the work that the user is currently doing inthe document 612, based on the contextual user model 180, andautomatically bring the notification 616 to the user's attention,accordingly.

Cognitive Context-Based Automated Information Discovery

Whereas input accelerator module 250 automatically suggests next actionsthat are likely to be helpful in completing inferred user tasks,discovery module 270 automatically identifies relevant content whosediscovery is likely to assist in the user's inferred activities. Asbackground, note that pending U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/182,245 (Method and Apparatus for Assembling a Set of DocumentsRelated to a Triggering Item), Ser. No. 13/149,536 (Method and Apparatusfor User Modelization), and Ser. No. 12/632,491 (Electronic Assistant)describe various methods and techniques for automatically identifyingand presenting documents and materials of likely relevance andusefulness to a user, including in an observed or inferred situation orcontext. In some embodiments, discovery module 270 leverages semanticinformation in contextual user model 180 about what the user iscurrently doing and seeing in order to infer the most pertinent aspectsof the user's current context, and can then utilize a variety of searchand information retrieval technologies in order to identify highlyrelevant material of likely usefulness in light of those pertinentaspects.

For example, discovery module 270 may glean from contextual user model180 that a user has very recently been looking carefully at portions ofseveral different documents—e.g. email messages, locally storeddocuments, web pages—and analysis of those specifically viewed portionsreveals that the user appears to be particularly interested in certainkeywords and/or topics. (Said analysis may be performed, for example,using semantic classification algorithms such as referenced in theabove-cited patent applications, and/or other information retrievalalgorithms known to practitioners of the relevant arts.) Discoverymodule 270 then automatically initiates a search for material relevantto the intersection of the identified keywords and/or topics of stronginterest, potentially including searches of the public internet (e.g.using a conventional search engine), the user's local (e.g. desktop)storage, the user's personal cloud data, enterprise/intranet sites,electronic libraries, and/or other available information repositories.The most relevant results of this search, as ranked by discovery module270, are then presented to the user for consideration, e.g. in a displayof interactive thumbnails as described above in connection with anexemplary embodiment of input accelerator 250 and step 440 of FIG. 4. Insome embodiments, this display of suggestions is unobtrusive, such thatthe user can browse it if desired, but otherwise creates minimalinterference with the user's work. In this regard, one approach is toleverage the gaze-tracking information delivered by user sensor 103 andcaptured in model 180, and to dynamically increase or reduce the size,centrality, or prominence of the suggestions depending on where and howintently the user's gaze is focused. In further embodiments, based onthe user's implicit or explicit feedback—e.g. selection and sustainedviewing (or not) of particular suggested content—module 270 candynamically modify its model of what topics, words and/or other criteriacurrently interest the user, for example in a manner analogous to thehandling of feedback as described in U.S. pending application Ser. No.13/149,536 referenced above.

Referring now to FIG. 7, an illustrative method 700 executable ascomputerized programs, routines, logic and/or instructions by one ormore of the various modules and/or components of the system 20, todiscover information in an automated fashion based on the contextualuser model 180, is shown. With the inference engine 185 more or lesscontinuously assessing the user's current interaction context asdescribed above, the method 700 receives an inference therefrom at block710. The inference may be drawn from the user's own personal contextualmodel 180 or one or more collective contextual user models 600 to whichthe user belongs. Using the inference, the method 700 automatically(e.g., without initiation by the user) formulates a computer-executablesearch query using conventional query development techniques, andexecutes the search query using conventional information retrievaltechniques (where any of such techniques may be selected according tothe requirements or design of a particular implementation of the system20, and may be now known or later-developed) (blocks 712 and 714). Asnoted above, the search may be executed across multiple softwareapplications. For example, the method 700 may search the user's emailfolders and also conduct a search across various data sources (websites, etc.) accessible via the Internet, to find information that maybe pertinent to the current interaction context. Blocks 716, 718, 720,and 722 operate in a similar fashion to blocks 532, 534, 536, and 538described above. The method 700 determines, based on the user's currentinteraction context, whether to go ahead and present a suggestioncontaining one or more results of the executed search query (block 716),presents the suggestion (block 718), receives active or passive userfeedback (block 720) and updates the user's contextual model 180 and/orone or more collective contextual models 600 to which the user belongs(block 722) with information about the user's interactions (or lackthereof) following the presentation of the suggestion, or, in the casewhere the method 700 does not present a suggestion, with informationabout the interaction context in which the suggestion was not offered.Following block 722, the method 700 returns to block 710 and awaits thereceipt of another inference from the inference engine 185.

Cognitive Indexing and Searching

In some embodiments, the system includes a cognitive indexing andcognitive-contextual search module 280, allowing users to make“workflow”-based search queries. As used herein, “cognitive indexing”refers to the indexing of content in a searchable body of content (e.g.,corpus) in cognitive, user-level terms; that is, with respect tocognitive events that are meaningful to the user. For example, based onthe interaction data contained in the contextual user model 180, arecently viewed article may be indexed with terms such as “read afterthe meeting about memory,” or “downloaded after email from Phil.”Similarly, a recently-edited document may be indexed with terms such as“edited while in San Francisco, after attending the conference onmemory.” Cognitive-contextual search module 280 can then use suchindexing to productively conduct searches for information in response toqueries that contain such loose cognitive associations or contextualreferences.

As used herein, “workflow” refers to a sequence, combination, or seriesof events and/or interactions that have occurred over the course of theuser's existence with reference to one or more computing devices andabout which the system 20 is knowledgeable. In other words, “workflow”typically implies a temporal component in connection with an interactionor series of interactions. The cognitive-contextual or workflow-basedsearch capability enables retrieval of desired information based onqueries that specify a combination of data characteristics (e.g.keywords, metadata) and a history of user interactions related to thedesired information. The capability is provided across multipledifferent applications, both with respect to the body of informationthat can be searched as well as the types of user interactions that canbe referenced. Moreover, the ability to retrieve based on specified userinteractions includes an ability to specify the user's broader contextwith respect to the specified interactions, e.g. when, where and in whatcontext the user performed a specified interaction and/or previouslyaccessed the relevant data. This cognitive-contextual or workflow-basedsearch capability provides quicker, faster and more intuitive search forinformation that a user has forgotten but can describe with “anecdotal”contextual information.

Some illustrative examples of cognitive-contextual or workflow-basedsearches:

-   -   “What documents did I view shortly after I read Joe's email        about transparent keyboards?”    -   “What articles have I read recently about the Patent Reform        Act?”    -   “What websites have I visited recently that were recommended to        me by email?”    -   “I'm looking for a document about image compression that Joe        sent me”    -   “I'm looking for the article about memory that I read on my iPad        while I was out of town”    -   “Find the book reading event of the author of the book that I        came across after I read the email from my colleague that        mentioned metaphors in behaviors.”

In an exemplary embodiment, search module 280 helps deliver thiscapability by indexing and relating pieces of information to each othervia high-level descriptions of user interactions that have occurred withrespect to such information. Search module 280 thus records theevolution of information over time through high-level user actions.Consequently, information that is accessed and interacted with cansubsequently be retrieved by the user based on a specification, from theuser's perspective, of prior interactions relevant to the desiredinformation.

Another feature that is facilitated by search module 280 involvesmulti-modal tracking of a user's context. In other words, the systemrecords (in contextual user model 180 and/or elsewhere) when, where, andin what context the user performs various actions. For example, throughrecording the user's current geographical location information, as wellas tracking the user's gaze and activities, the system can retrieveinformation based on where the user was located and what time it waswhen certain information was previously viewed and/or when certaininteractions took place, as well as what else the user might have lookedat or seen around the same time, and what other salient things werepresent in the user's context at the time. Because this storedrepresentation of historical information relates information/data to auser's actions and the user-level context of such actions, searchqueries (such as the examples listed above) can be answered that aremore closely related to the real-world experience of the user.

As noted above, in some embodiments, entries in contextual user model180 can be probabilistic. This probabilistic nature can be exploitedwhen answering queries, e.g., by presenting multiple, alternativeresponses to queries that are ranked or prioritized based on theprobabilities assessed by the system. For instance, consider the examplequery listed above: “What documents did I view shortly after I readJoe's email about transparent keyboards?” If the user viewed such anemail on multiple occasions or received multiple emails matching thatdescription, search module 280 can consider probabilities associated incontextual user model 180 with each of the recorded viewings—e.g.,perhaps on a certain occasion the user only briefly glanced at themessage and so is arguably less likely to have retained a strong memoryof that occasion—and can rank or filter the responsive documentsaccordingly.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an illustrative method 800 executable ascomputerized programs, routines, logic and/or instructions by one ormore of the various modules and/or components of the system 20, toconduct user-initiated searching based on a contextual user model 180,is shown. Here, rather than automatically formulating and executingsearch queries based on the user's current interaction context as in themethod 700, the method 800 is initiated by user input that it interpretsas a search request. As noted above, the types of search requests thatcan be handled by the method 800 include contextual (e.g., temporal)and/or interaction-related details that are more or less looselyassociated with material the user desires to retrieve, as the user maynormally use them to recall such an item. In this way, the method 800strives to simulate normal human brain activity that occurs when aperson attempts to remember or locate information.

At block 812, the method 800 interprets the user's search request usingthe contextual user model 180 and/or one or more collective contextualmodels 600 to which the user belongs. That is, vague or ambiguousreferences such as “before the meeting” may be resolved by determining,e.g., from the semantic descriptions of the user's recent interactionswith a calendar application stored in the user model 180, when the userlast attended a meeting. Similarly, loose references to people, places,or things, such as “the message from Phil” can be resolved by the method800 through a review of the user's recent interactions with an emailapplication, which are stored in the user model 180. In other words, themethod 800 maps the elements of the search request (e.g. datacharacteristics and interaction characteristics) to semanticdescriptions contained in the user model 180. At block 814, the method800 develops a computer-executable search query using both theuser-supplied search request and the contextual details gleaned from theuser model(s) 180, 600 at block 812.

Blocks 816, 818, 820, 822 and 824 operate in a similar fashion to blocks714, 716, 718, 720 and 722 described above. The method 800 executes thesearch query using conventional information retrieval techniques (whereany of such techniques may be selected according to the requirements ordesign of a particular implementation of the system 20, and may be nowknown or later-developed) (block 816). The method 800 determines, basedon the user's current interaction context, whether to go ahead andpresent a suggestion containing one or more results of the executedsearch query (block 818), presents the suggestion (block 820), receivesactive or passive user feedback (block 822) and updates the user'scontextual model 180 and/or one or more collective contextual models 600to which the user belongs (block 824), with information about the user'sinteractions (or lack thereof) following the presentation of thesuggestion, or, in the case where the method 800 does not present asuggestion, with information about the interaction context in which thesuggestion was not offered. Following block 824, the method 800 returnsto block 810 and awaits the receipt of another user-initiated searchrequest.

Referring now to FIG. 9, an exemplary user interface display 910 isshown. The illustrative display 910 is at least a portion of a displayscreen of a computing device and includes a natural language (e.g.,voice or text) interface to the search module 280. In the illustrativeembodiment, the system 20 prompts the user with a natural languagequestion 912. In other embodiments, the system 20 may simply provide amore traditional search dialog box, or other mechanism for allowing theuser to input a search request. The user responds with a naturallanguage search request 912, which contains data characteristics (“thearticle,” “about memory”) as well as interaction characteristics (“Ifound online,” “after Phil sent me an email,” “after our last meeting”).The system 20 determines, from the contextual user model 180, the personwho is most likely to be the “Phil” to which the user is referring, thedate and time of the user's last meeting in which Phil was also anattendee (via, e.g., the user's calendar interactions), and any emailmessages received from Phil in the time period after the meeting (basedon the user's email interactions). The illustrative system 20 respondsto the search request 914 with a natural language reply 916 and presentsthe search result 918. As mentioned above, the system can make note ofthe user's response to the result 918; e.g., whether the user closes thedialog box clicks on the hyperlink, and store that interaction data inthe user model 180.

Collective Contextual User Model

FIG. 10 depicts a system 1000 in which a collection 600(1) to 600(L)(where L is a positive integer) of contextual user models 180(1),180(2), 180(M) (where M is a positive integer), corresponding to each ofmultiple collaborating users of the system 20, are analyzed as a groupby a common interest discovery module 602. Results of such analysis aremade available to users and/or other applications or computer processesby the interface 190 and/or the content discovery module 270, forexample. Through, e.g., the interface 190 and/or content discoverymodule 270, the system 1000 can provide insight and advice to, forexample, an executive who is responsible for leading or managing thegroup of collaborating users, by providing a high-level summary and/oranalysis of what the various users are seeing and doing. The commoninterest discovery module 602 leverages semantic information in theindividual contextual user models 180(1) to 180(M) to infer relationsand connections among the users and their respective activities, andcreates collective contextual user models 600(1) to 600(L) as needed ordesired as it learns those relations and connections. Through theinterface 190 and/or the content discovery module 270, the system 1000can bring these relations and connections to the attention of individualusers if that seems relevant to their context (e.g., bringing knowledge,actions, or inferred goals of one user to the attention of anotheruser). Discovery of intersecting areas of current interest among a groupof skilled team members can thus be facilitated.

For example, in a group of collaborating researchers or analysts,interface 190 and/or content discovery module 270 can share with otherteam members, and/or with a supervisor, a shared reading record 615 ofwhat specific material has been viewed and focused on by other membersof the team. The shared reading record 615 facilitates noticing any gapsin coverage, assessing how thoroughly a body of material has beenreviewed, minimizing needlessly redundant effort, and/or callingattention to areas that have attracted the interest of multiple teammembers. Because a collective contextual model 600 can reflect not justwhich specific portions of content were viewed, but also with whatdegree of attention and focus (how long each such portion was actuallyviewed, etc., as described above), interface 190 and/or contentdiscovery module 270 (and/or a human reviewer) can draw inferencesregarding whether a given portion of content was actually read andlikely understood, and whether it was given sufficient attention by auser or by the group for purposes of comprehension. These capabilitiesare similarly valuable for purposes of education and training, e.g., byproviding a teacher with better data as to how thoroughly students haveread particular material, and to infer whether various portions seem tobe requiring and/or receiving greater or lesser effort from students. Insome embodiments, learning goals are specified and individual and/orgroup contextual user models can be compared to learning goals, in orderto facilitate automated reasoning about learning progress and adaptationof learning/training content, for example.

Referring now to FIG. 11, an illustrative method 1100 executable ascomputerized programs, routines, logic and/or instructions by one ormore of the various modules and/or components of the system 20, todevelop and maintain collective contextual user models, is shown. Themethod 1100 periodically or continuously (e.g., as a background process)monitors interaction data that is posted to the individual user models180 that are part of the system 20, over time (block 1110). The method1100 reviews the interaction data across multiple user models 180 toidentify common interests between or among the various users of thesystem 20 (block 1112) and then dynamically creates associations amongthe users determined to have such common interests. For example,interaction data relating to email correspondence may reveal that agroup of users are currently engaged in preparing a patent application,and thus these users may be associated with each other for purposes of acollective contextual model, at least temporarily. Once the patentapplication is prepared and filed, there may be no further need for thecollective contextual model, and so the associations and the resultingcollective model may be discontinued thereafter.

At block 1116, a collective contextual model as described above isformed autonomously by the system 1000, based on the associationscreated at block 1114. In some embodiments, the collective model may beformed by copying material from the relevant individual user models 180to a new location. In other embodiments, the collective model may existby virtue of references (e.g., pointers or meta data) associated withthe interaction data entries in the relevant individual user models. Inthe illustrative embodiments, the collective contextual models aredesigned to have a similar structure as the user model 180 describedabove. That is, each collective model may include pre-cognitive content,short term memory, long term memory, and/or persistent memory, asdescribed above. The method 1100 applies the cognitive and/or locomotiveparameters to the collective interaction data and stores the interactiondata in the corresponding subarea (e.g., pre-cognitive, short-term, orlong-term) in the collective contextual model, at block 1118.

Blocks 1120, 1122, and 1124 relate to the ability of the system 1000 toproactively or upon request provide collective interaction data oranalyses thereof to other applications and/or users of the system 1000,as described above. Block 1120 executes logic to determine whether tomake other users of a collective model aware of an interaction recentlyreceived into the collective model. For example, if one user of a grouprecently received an email containing an article that the system 1000knows relates to the group's common interest, the method 1100 may goahead and autonomously forward that email to the other members of thecollective model at block 1122. At block 1124, the interaction data ofthe users of a collective model may be aggregated and collectivelyanalyzed as described above (e.g., a reading record), before theinformation is made available via the interface 650. Feedback from theseveral users of a collective model can be received, analyzed, andincorporated into the collective model and/or individual user models ina similar fashion as described above, at blocks 1126 and 1128, and themethod 1100 may return to block 1110 to continue monitoring thecollective interaction context across the system 1000.

Referring now to FIG. 12, an exemplary user interface display 1210 isshown. The illustrative display 1210 is at least a portion of a displayscreen of a mobile computing device and may include a touch-sensitivedisplay or touch screen. In this example, a user has prepared an emailmessage 1212 forwarding an article to other members of a project team,but may have inadvertently forgotten to add one of the team members asan addressee. Using the collective contextual model formed by the system1000 based on the system 1000 having determined that the user, Jim, Sue,Mary, and John have a common interest, the system 1000 interrupts the“email send” application event to ask the user whether he or she alsointended to include John as an addressee, via a notification 1214. Theexemplary notification 1214 is interactive in that the user can select“Yes” to return to the email message and edit the addressee information,select “No” to continue sending the message to only Jim, Sue, and Mary,or simply ignore the notification by closing it. In some embodiments,the system may automatically insert John's email address into theaddressee field (using, e.g., input acceleration module 250) if the userselects “Yes.”

Implementation Examples

In an exemplary embodiment, the user interacts with the system 20through an interactive computing device such as a desktop computer,workstation, portable computer, or mobile computing device. In someembodiments, user sensor(s) 103 are integrated in the user's computingdevice. In some embodiments, the user's device includes adaptableinput/output facilities as described e.g. in pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/158,109 (Adaptable Input/Output Device), whilein other embodiments the user's device may comprise a more conventionalinteractive computing device.

Portions of the system 20 and/or the system 1000 may be implemented insoftware, firmware, and/or hardware as one or more logical modules orroutines that are executable by a computing device or system, which insome embodiments may be the same device with which the user locallyinteracts, or may comprise a physically separate computing resource incommunication with the user's interactive device (e.g. one or moreremote, “cloud”-based computer servers). In some embodiments, one ormore portions of the system 20 and/or the system 1000 may be implementedas integrated components of framework 110. Storage for the variouscomponents of contextual user model 180 may be local to the user'sinteractive computing device, physically separate and/or remote, or acombination. In some embodiments, access to contextual user model 180may be shared across multiple user devices—for example, the user modelmay incorporate and reflect activities conducted on a primary desktopmachine as well as on one or more portable devices of a given user. Insome embodiments, a version of user model 180 can be maintained on eachof a user's separate devices, and periodically synchronized as logisticspermit (connectivity etc.).

In some embodiments, the application 100 can also be executed in alegacy system environment, where elements such as framework component110 and contextual user model 180 are not present. This can be readilyachieved by coding application 100 to detect the absence of therequisite elements, in which case application 100 generally executes inthe usual manner but does not perform the operations that prepare andpost semantic descriptions into contextual user model 180.

As illustrated in FIG. 13, portions of the system 20 and contextual usermodel 180 are embodied in a computing device 1310. Portions of thesystem 20, the user model 180, and/or portions of the collectiveinteraction modeling system 1000 (including any one or more of thecollective models 600) may be distributed across multiple computingdevices 1310, 1354 connected via one or more networks 1352.

The illustrative computing device 1310 includes at least one processor1312 (e.g. microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor,etc.), memory 1314, and an input/output (I/O) subsystem 1316. Theprocessor 1312 and the I/O subsystem 1316 are communicatively coupled tothe memory 1314. The memory 1314 may be embodied as any type of suitablecomputer memory device (e.g., volatile memory such as various forms ofrandom access memory).

The I/O subsystem 1316 is communicatively coupled to at least onetouch-sensitive display 1318 (e.g., a touchscreen, virtual keypad,etc.), a microphone 1336, one or more other input or user controldevices 1320 (e.g., a physical keyboard or keypad, buttons, hardpanelcontrols, tactile or haptic interface, etc.), at least one data storage1322, a gaze-tracking system 1338, one or more other sensors 1340 (e.g.,any of the aforementioned sensors), one or more still and/or videocameras 1342, one or more audio speakers 1344, other output devices 1346(e.g., an LED, display screen, etc.), one or more other peripheraldevices 1348 (e.g., GPS or other location service transceiver, sound,graphics or media adaptors, etc.), and at least one network interface1350.

The data storage 1322 may include one or more hard drives or othersuitable data storage devices (e.g., flash memory, memory cards, memorysticks, and/or others). Portions of the system 20 and/or the user model180 may reside at least temporarily in the data storage 1322 and may becopied to the memory 1314 during operation, for faster processing orother reasons.

The network interface 1350 communicatively couples the computing device1310 to one or more other computing systems or devices 1354 via thenetworks 1352. The network(s) 1352 may include a local area network,wide area network, personal cloud, enterprise cloud, public cloud,and/or the Internet, for example. Accordingly, the network interface(s)746 may include a wired or wireless Ethernet, mobile/cell network,WI-FI, BLUETOOTH, VPN, or NFC adapter or other suitable interfacedevices as may be needed, pursuant to the specifications and/or designof the particular networks 1352. The other device(s) 1354 may beembodied as any suitable type of computing device such as, for example,a server, an enterprise computer system, a network of computers, acombination of computers and other electronic devices, a mobile device,any of the aforementioned types of computing devices, or otherelectronic devices.

The computing device 1310 may include other components, sub-components,and devices not illustrated in FIG. 13 for clarity of the description.In general, the components of the computing device 1310 arecommunicatively coupled as shown in FIG. 13 by one or more signal paths,which may be embodied as any type of wired or wireless signal pathscapable of facilitating communication between the respective devices andcomponents.

General Considerations

In the foregoing description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a more thorough understanding of the presentdisclosure. It will be appreciated, however, that embodiments of thedisclosure may be practiced without such specific details. Those ofordinary skill in the art, with the included descriptions, should beable to implement appropriate functionality without undueexperimentation.

References in the specification to “an embodiment,” etc., indicate thatthe embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include theparticular feature, structure, or characteristic. Such phrases are notnecessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with anembodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of oneskilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristicin connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitlyindicated.

Embodiments in accordance with the disclosure may be implemented inhardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof. Embodimentsmay also be implemented as instructions stored using one or moremachine-readable media, which may be read and executed by one or moreprocessors. A machine-readable medium may include any mechanism forstoring or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine(e.g., a computing device or a “virtual machine” running on one or morecomputing devices). For example, a machine-readable medium may includeany suitable form of volatile or non-volatile memory.

In the drawings, specific arrangements or orderings of schematicelements may be shown for ease of description. However, the specificordering or arrangement of such elements is not meant to imply that aparticular order or sequence of processing, or separation of processes,is required in all embodiments.

In general, schematic elements used to represent instruction blocks ormodules may be implemented using any suitable form of machine-readableinstruction, and each such instruction may be implemented using anysuitable programming language, library, application programminginterface (API), and/or other software development tools or frameworks.Similarly, schematic elements used to represent data or information maybe implemented using any suitable electronic arrangement or datastructure. Further, some connections, relationships or associationsbetween elements may be simplified or not shown in the drawings so asnot to obscure the disclosure.

The foregoing disclosure is to be considered as exemplary and notrestrictive in character, and all changes and modifications that comewithin the spirit of the disclosure are desired to be protected.Further, while aspects of the present disclosure may be described in thecontext of particular forms of electronic devices and systems, it shouldbe understood that the various aspects have other applications, forexample, in other electronic devices or in any application in which itis desired to improve or enhance the human-electronic device experience.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A common interest discovery module to discover common interests between or among users interacting with a computing system, the common interest discovery module comprising executable instructions embodied in one or more non-transitory machine-readable media, the common interest discovery module configured to cause one or more computing devices of the computing system to: access a plurality of contextual user models, the contextual user models comprising interaction data relating to a plurality of different interactions of a plurality of different users, the interaction data relating at least to: one or more real-time sensor inputs indicative of user gaze in relation to on-screen locations of a display of the computing device; and one or more user interface elements displayed at the on-screen locations corresponding to the gaze-tracking data; analyze interaction data of at least two of the users; based on the analysis of the interaction data, identify a common interest of the at least two users; and create an association between the at least two users having the common interest.
 2. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, configured to apply one or more cognitive parameters to the user-specific interaction data and store the user-specific interaction data in the collective contextual user model according to the cognitive parameters.
 3. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, wherein the collective interaction context relates to a common interest derived from the user-specific interaction data.
 4. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, wherein the collective interaction context relates to content viewed by users associated with the contextual user models.
 5. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, wherein the collective interaction context relates to prior interactions with the computing system by users associated with the contextual user models.
 6. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, wherein the collective interaction context relates to current interactions with the computing system by users associated with the contextual user models.
 7. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, wherein the collective contextual user model comprises a short term memory, a long term memory, and pre-cognitive content.
 8. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, configured to generate a notification relating to user-specific interaction data based on the collective interaction context.
 9. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, configured to aggregate user-specific interaction data from the plurality of contextual user models and present an inference based on the aggregated user-specific interaction data.
 10. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, wherein the user-specific interaction data comprises data relating to user interactions with a plurality of software applications.
 11. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, configured to present content associated with user-specific interaction data of a contextual user model to one or more users associated with the collective contextual user model.
 12. The common interest discovery module of claim 11, configured to receive user feedback in response to the presentation of content and update the collective contextual user model based on the user feedback.
 13. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, configured to initiate a software application event based on the collective contextual user model.
 14. The common interest discovery module of claim 13, configured to receive user feedback in response to the initiated software application event and update the collective contextual user model based on the user feedback.
 15. The common interest discovery module of claim 1, configured to prepare a shared reading record indicating portions of content viewed by users associated with the collective contextual model.
 16. The common interest discovery module of claim 15, configured to indicate in the shared reading record durations of visual attention associated with the portions of content viewed by the users associated with the collective contextual model, wherein the durations of visual attention are derived from the gaze-tracking data.
 17. The common interest discovery module of claim 16, configured to apply one or more cognitive parameters to the durations of visual attention to associate levels of cognitive processing with the durations of visual attention.
 18. The common interest discovery module of claim 17, configured to identify portions of content having higher or lower levels of cognitive processing.
 19. A method for determining a collective interaction context of users interacting with a computing system, the method comprising: maintaining a plurality of contextual user models, the contextual user models comprising interaction data relating to interactions of a plurality of different users, the interaction data comprising; passive interaction data relating to one or more real-time sensor inputs indicative of a passive user interaction in relation to on-screen locations of a display of a computing device, the passive interaction data relating to a user interaction that does not initiate an application event; and one or more user interface elements displayed at the on-screen locations corresponding to the passive interaction data; analyzing interaction data of at least two of the users; identifying one or more common interests of the at least two users based on one or more topics or activities that are common across at least two of the contextual user models; and dynamically associating the plurality of contextual user models with one another based on the one or more common interests.
 20. The method of claim 19, comprising forming a plurality of collective contextual user models based on the associations of contextual user models, wherein each collective contextual user model comprises user-specific interaction data relating to the common interest.
 21. The method of claim 20, comprising changing the plurality of collective contextual user models as the common interests change.
 22. The method of claim 19, wherein the user-specific interaction data comprises active interaction data relating to a user interaction that results in an application event.
 23. The method of claim 19, wherein the real-time sensor inputs comprise one or more of gaze-tracking inputs, proximity inputs, force inputs and pressure inputs.
 24. A computing system comprising: a display; a sensor subsystem to obtain the passive interaction data; one or more processors; and one or more machine-readable media having stored therein a plurality of instructions that when executed by the processor cause the computing system to perform the method of claim
 19. 25. A common interest discovery module to discover common interests between or among users interacting with a computing system, comprising executable instructions embodied in one or more non-transitory machine-readable media, configured to: access a plurality of contextual user models, the contextual user models comprising interaction data relating to interactions of a plurality of users, the interaction data comprising: passive interaction data relating to a user interaction that does not initiate an application event; active interaction data, the active interaction data relating to a one or more user interactions that result in an application event; and semantic descriptions of user interface elements involved in at least the passive interaction; by analyzing interaction data of at least two of the contextual user models, identify a common interest of at least two users of the computing system; and based on the common interest, associate interaction data from the plurality of contextual user models with other data from the plurality of contextual user models.
 26. A common interest discovery module to discover common interests between or among users interacting with a computing system, the common interest discovery module comprising executable instructions embodied in one or more non-transitory machine-readable media, the common interest discovery module configured to cause one or more computing devices of the computing system to: access a plurality of contextual user models, each of the contextual user models comprising interaction data relating to interactions of a different, individual user, the interaction data relating at least to: one or more real-time sensor inputs indicative of user gaze in relation to on-screen locations of a display of the computing device; and one or more user interface elements displayed at the on-screen locations corresponding to the gaze-tracking data; analyze interaction data of at least two of the plurality of contextual user models; identify a common interest of at least two users of the computing system; create an association between the at least two users having the common interest; and proactively generate a suggestion relating to the common interest. 